Third Sunday Market has been around for a while ya’ll, and I am quite embarrassed to say that I have never been. Crazy I know. Probably for the best though; I walked around about a third of the place and could have spent a few hundred dollars….I can only imagine what the rest of it looked like. Good thing we were there to make money and not spend it! This was another fun market day! We were lucky and ended up getting a double booth, but with just having a market the day before and coming home with an almost empty trailer, that meant we had to scrounge to fill it back up! Luckily we have had enough furniture painted and ready for this. I love having bigger booth spaces, that way we can bring our farmhouse tables to them. I especially love this table, a big white distressed table is perfect for any farmhouse kitchen! And as I have said before, kitchen tables are perfect display pieces as well.

We brought our only dresser we had left from the previous day’s market, and one other one we had back at home. And we sold both of them! Which makes me happy because that means we get to redo some new ones we have had sitting at home to bring to our next market! I love getting to decorate with new furniture, and bring new ideas/pieces to you guys each time!

We brought a dry sink that was just finished as well. We have never had a piece like this before, and it was very popular! We brought more smaller items to this market…having sold most of our big ones the day before! Side tables were a surplus; a few stools and a chair were sold. We went through so much furniture this weekend ya’ll and I couldn’t be more excited!

Third Sunday Market is a large “flea market” for those of you that do not know. There are many vendors like us, but there are also vendors that you would see at a barn sale, garage sale, flea market, etc. It is one very large sale with just about everything in it. So the fall decorations were not the biggest ticket item here as many pickers walking around are looking for good “sales”. We are loving venturing outside of the champaign-urbana area and meeting new customers. Getting your name out there is key when starting a new business. I feel we are doing a great job at that in traveling to all of these different places. We have yet to have attend a market more than one time, trying to always make it somewhere new each month.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see us this weekend, we had so much fun! You can always follow along with us on Facebook and Instagram as well! We hope you can join us again at our market next month!

Saturday we went a little out of our comfort zone and took a two-hour trip up to Shorewood, IL. It was a neat market out of Skooter’s Roadhouse, with an open bar might I add… But it was also our best and favorite market so far. We had a lot of new furniture at this market. Most of it was out for customers for the first time! We had a customer come up shortly after the market started, said she came there looking for a black desk, what do you know we brought ours that day! Bye, bye black desk! (I didn’t have a good picture of the desk from the market, so this is all I have.)

We had two matching dressers for the first time, painting them a distressed light gray and of course these were sold together. We have been asked by multiple people before for matching dressers; they aren’t easy to come by. But we got this set and sold them immediately, we can see that they are in high demand.

We had another new dresser out that is one of my favorites so far. We will definitely be making another one of these! A regular painted dresser with a nice little handwritten touch. Great for any child’s room!

On the longest yard we went on this summer, we picked up a hutch that we knew we had to have. After a little TLC, we had this thing looking wonderful, we knew it wouldn’t last long. Numerous customers came by to gawk at it, measure it, and then one sweet lady bought it! This was a fantastic piece to decorate, I was almost sad to see it go, and have to move all my decorations elsewhere…We kept all the doors off of it, to use it as more of a display piece.

This was also our first fall market. We loaded up on fall decorations, not knowing how much of a high demand it would be. The fabric pumpkins we made were definitely a hit. We also had a few sets of fall pillows, canvas signs, ceramic pumpkins, etc. I love decorating for fall! Decorating for this market was so much fun, all the colors brightened up the booth and made it stand out.

Our round kitchen table sold at this market as well. This was also a fun piece for me to decorate. Tables are fun because you can change up your centerpieces and place settings each market, or use it to set up other furniture as well. You just have to be careful not to cover up the detail and beauty of the table!

Let me tell you loading up that trailer at the end of this market was much easier than unloading! We had so much fun Saturday and want to thank everyone who came out to see us! We also want to thank Sweet Pickins Junktique for throwing a fantastic market in Shorewood! Now to work on some new furniture!

Our first indoor market, it was a breath of fresh air, not having to sit in the hot sun all day! The fluid event center was a great place for the market, filled with vendors and customers. We had some great new pieces that were fun to decorate. Market days are always fun for me just getting to decorate an entire booth full of furniture.

We were able to display some of our new pickins from the longest yard sale we went on earlier in the month. And of course we got to bring out some of our fall signs/decor. We still have yet to set up an etsy account for our handmade signs, so for now we keep them out for sale at our markets. With so many custom orders going out, an etsy account may not be needed! Thank you to everyone who has come to us for a custom sign!

This kitchen table was one of my favorite newer pieces. The white distressed legs really set off the black tabletop. We decorated it up with some new antique china we picked and a set of white, chippy, metal chairs. I love mixing in all kinds of materials and colors. Glass and metal are perfect to add in a simple color or texture. Greenery is my favorite way to add color to any neutral setting; greenery can be fit in almost anywhere. This display was a hit!

We are continuing to play around with our backdrop. But I think we are finally set on something! Being a mother-daughter small business, it is typically just the two of us. Our men help us tremendously, but they have busy lives as well. Slowly we are figuring out how to do everything on our own! Sometimes though, I think we get asked about our old chippy doors more than our actual booth!! I mean who doesn’t love old chippy doors? 🙂

Thank you to everyone who came out to visit us Saturday! And to all those reading this as well! Our next market is Saturday, September 17th up in Shorewood, IL at the Sweet Pickins Junktique Market.

Our largest market yet! I was so excited for this market! We had a 20’x20′ booth and used every bit of it that we could. Crow’s Nest; an adorable antique store located just outside of Fithian, IL; had a wonderful market out her front door.

We had a new antique dresser that was just finished with much characteristic. I think this piece was the most liked! It had character on every drawer and every handle. We loved emphasizing it.

We had a gorgeous farmhouse kitchen table antiqued and distressed to perfection. I was in love with this piece and have one very similar in my own dining room. This black desk was a hit as well, with the original gold hardware to keep the antique, aged look.

While we do chalk paint and antique almost every piece we sell, we do find a few pieces that are too pretty to paint. We had a small wooden dresser that we gel stained, a first for me! It turned out pretty good! We had this gorgeous old large chest that I already have so many places I could decorate with!

Overall it was a great market and we had more than enough furniture and goods! Thank you to every one that came out to see us! We will be at the CU Flea Market in Champaign August 20th, be sure to come see us!

We had our first little booth set up at a local shop for a weekend! Ginger’s market is located downtown St. Joseph, IL. We were excited to display our merchandise amongst many other great booths!

I was surprised at how much we could fit in to a 3′ x 8′ area, but we made it work perfectly! We had this wonderful five drawer dresser to display and fill with goods. Each market I find it hard not to keep some of the pickins for myself!

We also had a fun refurbished yellow chair that I loved; the perfect pop of color for any space!

Thank you to all who came to visit our booth, we hope to see you at the next market!

Yesterday was A Crafty Farm Shop’s first appearance in public! This was a pretty quick decision to start up a business and when I heard about this Market, I jumped at the opportunity to show off all of our goodies! Little did I realize, we only had about a month to prepare. We were starting from scratch, never having done a market before. So for the past month we spent every free minute, sewing, drawing, crafting, painting and junkin! I found a couple barns to scour and my mom hit up as many sales as possible. Our houses were beginning to accumulate a lot of products and arms were growing sore from painting so much! Stress and excitment levels were at an all time high.

And then friday came…the market was tomorrow! Did we have everything we needed, had we thought over taxes, receipts, bags, a tent, we did not want to miss anything. We measured out our booth space in the garage and set it all up. I decorated my heart out. And then walked around taking pictures of every little detail, I had to replicate this tomorrow.

We were up all night; pricing, planning, and packing everything up. We got about 4 hours of sleep; this was most certainly our first show! But it turned out better than I ever could have expected. Saturday morning came with a light sprinkle before we even got to the show to set up. I was frantic. Until we arrived at our vendor spot, under a tree, completely dry. This was going to be a good day! 🙂 And it was. We received so many complements and already got asked to attend another market! Thank you to everyone that encouraged and supported us to begin this journey, I cannot wait to see where it takes us! – Erin & Glynis